Janet Reno on Abortion

Former Attorney General; Democratic Challenger FL Governor

Don’t force women to have children when they’re not ready

“We’ve got to make sure that parents are old enough, wise enough, and financially able enough to take care of their children, and that they are taught parenting skills that enable them to be responsible parents.”
Within this statement-Reno’s mantra about the responsibilities of parenthood-lies one of the pillars of her support for the right to abortion: a woman should not be forced to bear a child if she is not ready to be a parent.

Source: Doing the Right Thing, by Paul Anderson, p.262-263
May 12, 1993

Supports clinic access law & criminalizing obstruction

Within two weeks of being sworn in, Reno endorsed a bill introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy that would guarantee access to abortion clinics. She addressed constitutional concerns by helping draft amendments to the bill that balance protestors’ right of
free speech with the right of access to clinics.

“A woman’s right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy is fundamental,” Reno testified to the committee considering Kennedy’s bill.

She endorsed the bill’s criminal sanctions against those
committing violence against clinic personnel and patients, threatening providers, pr obstructing or destroying clinics. Though she acknowledged protestors’ right of free speech and the “extraordinarily delicate balance that we have to strike between the
rights of all people involved,” she yielded no ground when challenged by antiabortion senators who claimed that the access law would be held unconstitutional.

Source: Doing the Right Thing, by Paul Anderson, p.263
May 12, 1993

Pro-choice

[At her Senate confirmation hearings as Attorney General], Reno had been coached to soft-pedal controversial issues by White House lawyers and image makers who sought to moderate her blunt-spoken ways in advance of the Senate confirmation hearings.
But when asked her position on abortion, her answer was classic Reno: “I’m pro-choice.”